The opening section: Basically, what is the deal with the flowers? If it opens a chapter I would assume that the contents have some importance. Is it symbolic of anything more??
"Roses, lilies, carnations in particular, looked over the rims of vases and surveyed the bright lives and swift dooms of their artificial relations . . . . Kitty Craster married him [the observer] on the strength of it six months later. But real flowers can never be dispensed with. If they could, human life would be a different affair altogether" (63).
I am thinking that perhaps the flowers represent our own lives. If so, then who would be the fake versus the genuine flowers? Is this a comment on society . . . am I taking this too far?
And then the subject of a woman marrying a man for the sole reason that she considered him to be "charming." Is this merely a quality that she assigned to the man--as Woolf mentioned before that people often see what they want to see in others? IF so, this would be a comment on the blindness of love and the lack of true caring in marriage. The line that real flowers can never die is thus Woolf saying that a genuine person is true all the way through, that he or she does not put on an act for others and for society.
What do you think?- sfa-c Jan 15, 2008
All the talking about flowers at first made me roll my eyes. But then woolf wrote this after speaking of Clara's agitation caused by the mention of Bonamy, who is interested in her, but she not in him: "Such were the very serious consequences of the invention of paper flowers to swim in bowls" (65). I believe that this is a comment on the triviality of society, implying that one can become distressed by the simplest of things, that is Mallett's "Wellington nose" (64). Clara basically does not find him attractive because of his schnoz, or is that just an excuse? Yes, it is. I've heard nothing bad about this Bonamy guy. Clara wants Jacob, even though there is another suitor without apparrent fault. Woolf probably saw this is trivial and stupid. Thus, she was in fact a comment on the blindness of love and lack of true caring in marriage. This probably has something to do with the fact that she marital problems with her husband.This likely stems from the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her half-brother.- JHe-c Jan 16, 2008
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At first thought, I, too, rolled my eyes and just thought that it was going to be another rambling from Virgina Woolf. However, I realized that at that point in the book, Jacob is still "experimenting" with his love life, and there is the entire section were Woolf writes about Clara's desire for Jacob. I noticed that, in that moment, we were looking at the bud of a flower, something that definitely has the potential to grow. That bud was the relationship between Clara and Jacob. I think that's where the thoughts about the flowers represent our lives because of the uniqueness and the process of growth. I agree that Woolf made the flowers an important connection between the reader and the characters in the book, but besides the symbolism of growth, why would she choose paper flowers as the important connection? - bzw-c Jan 23, 2008
"Roses, lilies, carnations in particular, looked over the rims of vases and surveyed the bright lives and swift dooms of their artificial relations . . . . Kitty Craster married him [the observer] on the strength of it six months later. But real flowers can never be dispensed with. If they could, human life would be a different affair altogether" (63).
I am thinking that perhaps the flowers represent our own lives. If so, then who would be the fake versus the genuine flowers? Is this a comment on society . . . am I taking this too far?
And then the subject of a woman marrying a man for the sole reason that she considered him to be "charming." Is this merely a quality that she assigned to the man--as Woolf mentioned before that people often see what they want to see in others? IF so, this would be a comment on the blindness of love and the lack of true caring in marriage. The line that real flowers can never die is thus Woolf saying that a genuine person is true all the way through, that he or she does not put on an act for others and for society.
What do you think?-
All the talking about flowers at first made me roll my eyes. But then woolf wrote this after speaking of Clara's agitation caused by the mention of Bonamy, who is interested in her, but she not in him: "Such were the very serious consequences of the invention of paper flowers to swim in bowls" (65). I believe that this is a comment on the triviality of society, implying that one can become distressed by the simplest of things, that is Mallett's "Wellington nose" (64). Clara basically does not find him attractive because of his schnoz, or is that just an excuse? Yes, it is. I've heard nothing bad about this Bonamy guy. Clara wants Jacob, even though there is another suitor without apparrent fault. Woolf probably saw this is trivial and stupid. Thus, she was in fact a comment on the blindness of love and lack of true caring in marriage. This probably has something to do with the fact that she marital problems with her husband.This likely stems from the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her half-brother.-
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At first thought, I, too, rolled my eyes and just thought that it was going to be another rambling from Virgina Woolf. However, I realized that at that point in the book, Jacob is still "experimenting" with his love life, and there is the entire section were Woolf writes about Clara's desire for Jacob. I noticed that, in that moment, we were looking at the bud of a flower, something that definitely has the potential to grow. That bud was the relationship between Clara and Jacob. I think that's where the thoughts about the flowers represent our lives because of the uniqueness and the process of growth. I agree that Woolf made the flowers an important connection between the reader and the characters in the book, but besides the symbolism of growth, why would she choose paper flowers as the important connection? -